REPORT: Mexico Making Progress in Its Battle Against Heroin and Synthetic Drug Cultivation

Mexico, the country most affected by drug-related violence, is making significant progress in battling heroin and synthetic drugs, the International Narcotics Control Board, or INCB, said in its annual report.

“Large-scale law enforcement operations targeting the cultivation of opium poppy and the manufacturing of heroin in Mexico have yielded unprecedented results,” the INCB, a U.N. agency, said.

While Mexico officially reported seizing 685 kilos of heroin in 2011, the Defense Secretariat confirmed the seizure of an additional 3,640 liters (961 gallons) of a liquid that laboratory tests confirmed was heroin.

“The seizure represented the largest of its kind ever carried out in Mexico,” the INCB said.

Opium seizures totaled 1.45 tons in 2011, Mexican officials said.

“Cocaine seizures in Mexico remained relatively stable in 2011 at 9.4 tons, following a substantial decline from 21.6 tons in 2009 to 9.4 tons in 2010,” the INCB report said.

Drug-related violence “continued to constitute a major threat to public security nationwide” in Mexico, the U.N. agency said.

“According to figures released by the Government of Mexico, over 60,000 people have been killed as a result of drug-related violence since 2006. The Attorney General reported that 12,903 people were killed between January and September 2011 alone, representing an 11-per-cent increase over the same period the previous year,” the INCB report said.

The INCB, which was established in 1968, is an independent and quasi-judicial agency charged with monitoring implementation of United Nations international drug control conventions.